Quote:
Originally Posted by Pianoman
You twisted my words, brother! 
I don't believe an atheist can plan to convert on a particular day in the future. If he plans to convert, he has already converted! He can only plan to repent openly in front of his earthly father.
Repentance is a heart issue, so his plan to vocally repent in front of his father is after the fact. He obviously has already repented in his heart in able to plan to repent in front of his father!
Again, repentance is not saying out loud, "I repent!' Repentance actually happened before the words got out of his mouth! |
No one twisted your words. You've made yourself very clear, and I understand what you're saying. I just strongly disagree.
A man who sees the need to convert, and thus plans to do so,
has not crossed over into a converted state just because he plans to. He converts when he actually converts, not before.
By your own words, you equated having the intention to repent, with repenting itself:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pianoman
Repentance is a frame of mind. If he planned to repent in front of his earthly father, he has repented to God.
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But intention to repent is not repentance in and of itself, as your words would imply. Those are 2 distinctly separate things.
Indeed, it is the Spirit of God that open our spiritual eyes to the need for repentance, and creates in us the intention to repent. And indeed, a person can repent before God without necessarily uttering "I repent, I'm sorry" etc., although most of us do/did.
But after one recognizes the need of repentance, having the intention to repent is something that
precedes repentance itself.
No amount of semantics can get around that simple fact.